Embattled St. Catharines Regional Coun. Andy Petrowski is taking a leave of absence from his elected post and will be cut off from regional communications.

Niagara Regional chair Alan Caslin issued a three-sentence statement Wednesday around 12:15 p.m. saying Petrowski notified him during a morning meeting that he is stepping away from council.

“At my scheduled meeting with Councillor Petrowski this morning, the Councillor provided notification that he is taking a personal leave of absence,” Caslin’s statement said. “Due to privacy legislation, the corporation cannot provide further information regarding the leave of absence.

“Notwithstanding the above, the Councillor’s access to his Niagara Region email account and corporate devices has been suspended.”

Petrowski, who has courted controversy over his political career and was recently found to have violated the Region’s code of conduct in three integrity commissioner reports, made national headlines this week when a pornographic image was emailed from his government account.

The latest political storm surrounding Petrowski followed a Monday email notification from the Region that said traffic on the Burgoyne Bridge will be reduced to one lane from June 1 to June 16 for construction.

The message was sent to more than 100 people, including St. Catharines regional councillors, the St. Catharines city clerk, the head of Brock University security, local radio stations and Niagara Student Transportation Services.

St. Catharines regional councillor Bruce Timms replied to the email writing “Thank you it will be good to see these final touches.”

About an hour later, the email from Petrowski’s account was sent to everyone on the list.

“There must have been a sale on these multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded, non-functional arches…guess who put these up in Ottawa You’re right if you said …. drum roll, please….’Pomerlau’…what a joke!”, the message said.

The image of a naked woman sitting a stool with her legs spread open was inserted into the body of the message. Unlike an email attachment, an inserted image is seen as soon as the email is opened.

Six minutes later, Petrowski emailed his apology to everyone who received the pornographic image.

“I take full responsibility for the lack of judgment in leaving my Regional e-mail system unlocked,” Petrowski wrote in an email. “I apologize to everyone for the previous e-mail just sent…this was sent in error as a terrible message by someone who was using my iPad I thought to send a private message. I am very sorry for this unacceptable and inappropriate transmission.”

In a statement reported by Niagara This Week Tuesday, Petrowski repeated his apology but added that while he wrote the content of the email regarding the bridge, he did not embed the pornographic image.

The Standard sent an email to Petrowski asking how someone other than himself could have inserted the image into an email he was writing.

“Stop harassing me, Mr. LaFleche, and do not copy or send me any more of your harassing e-mails,” was Petrowski’s reply by email.

After reports of the pornographic email were made public Monday, Caslin issued a statement saying he would ask for Petrowski’s resignation from council.

“I’m not going to comment,” Caslin said Wednesday after meeting with Petrowski. “I’ve been told not to talk about it citing privacy legislation.

“I have said that there is a lot of good work going on at Regional Council. There have been many distractions. I am hoping we can get past them now.”

Thorold Regional Coun. Henry D’Angela said no one on council wishes Petrowski ill will.

“If someone is having issues, you try to help them as best you can,” D’Angela said. “I hope he realizes the way he is behaving is not acceptable for a regional councillor.

“Hopefully he can look at this and become a better councillor and not so disruptive. That is something he has to do himself. We can’t tell him how to act.”

D’Angela said some council members have enabled Petrowski’s behaviour by appointing him to prominent positions such as the Police Services Board, where he was the vice-chairman.

“If you are a chair or the vice-chair of a committee, you play a greater role,” D’Angela said. “It is no disrespect to those who aren’t in those roles, but a chair or vice-chair is a position of leadership. You have to act more respectfully.

“You can’t call people names and berate them and insult them when you have a difference of opinion.

“People are looking at you for leadership when you are an elected official — and you have to be very careful about how you handle yourself.”

There are a number of unanswered questions about what Petrowski’s leave will entail.

Will Petrowski be paid during his absence? How long will the leave last? Who decides when the leave ends? If the leave is extended, will there be a by-election to replace him?

Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn said he didn’t know the answers.

“I would presume it is similar to anything else in terms of human resources, and he would be paid,” Augustyn said. “There is a time period within the Municipal Act where council has to endorse an absence of more than 90 days.

“Regional councillors can participate in a benefits program at the Region — dental, eye care. Part of the benefits program available to councillors and staff is an employee assistance program.”

Grimsby Regional Coun. Tony Quirk agreed that the controversy surrounding Petrowski was diverting attention from issues and public policy.

“It will be nice to have the distractions off the table,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do to move ahead with our agenda to bring economic prosperity to Niagara.

“It is also important to remember that (Petrowski) was duly elected by the people of St. Catharines.

“The people of St. Catharines elected him twice — the second time knowing the sort of representation he would bring to this council chamber.”

Niagara Falls Regional Coun. Selena Volpatti said the leave of absence worked for everyone.

“I think it is the best thing for Andy and the region as a whole,” she said. “We can get down to business — and he can take care of himself.

“This is a human resources issue. That is where it should be dealt with. As a council, we need to be dealing with things like planning issues and development charges.

“At the end of the day, we all our human beings and even though we are elected officials, we have lives outside the chamber. I’m really concerned about Andy. He is a great addition to our council when he is operating efficiently.”

This month’s incident is the second time in as many years that Petrowski has claimed an offending message sent from his communication devices was someone else’s handiwork.

He used the same mea culpa in January 2016 after Niagara Regional Police Chief Jeff McGuire received a text message from Petrowski’s phone that read, “hello clown are you a tyrant?”

At the time Petrowski was a member of the police services board under investigation and by the Ontario Civilian Police Commission. He claimed he left his phone unattended and someone used it to send McGuire the message.

As in the case of the pornographic email, Petrowski would not identify the person he claimed sent the text message.